Question

All right, I’m a novice at python, and here’s the snippet of code in question:

<!-- language: lang-py -->

List = [["W","w"],["A","A"],["a","a"]]

def ascii():
    x = 0
    y = 0
    aValues = [[],[],[]]
    for item in List:
        for item in List[x]:
            c = "0" 
            c = ord(List[x[y]])
            y = y + 1
            aValues[x].append(c)
        x = x + 1

    return aValues
aValues = ascii()
print (aValues)

---

And, when I try to execute this, I get this error message:

>>> 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/Hersh/Desktop/Python/ascii_conversion.py", line 16, in <module>
    aValues = ascii()
  File "/Users/Hersh/Desktop/Python/ascii_conversion.py", line 10, in ascii
    c = ord(List[x[y]])
TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable
>>> 

What exactly is the problem, and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

I’m not sure of what exactly you intend to do with the function, it has several errors. Try this and tell me if this is what you wanted:

List = [["W", "w"], ["A", "A"], ["a", "a"]]
aValues = [[ord(e1), ord(e2)] for e1, e2 in List]
print(aValues)

EDIT 1 :

Alternatively, if each sublist contains more than two elements, this version is better and will work for the general case:

aValues = [map(ord, pair) for pair in List]

EDIT 2 :

According to the comments, you need to use a function. All right, then let’s implement the solution as a function – first thing, the input for the function should be received as a parameter, not as a global variable (List) as you have currently in your code. Then, the result will be returned, and I’ll take the opportunity to show yet another way to solve the problem at hand:

def ascii(lst):
    return [[ord(element) for element in pair] for pair in lst]

Use it like this:

List = [["W", "w"], ["A", "A"], ["a", "a"]]
ascii(List)
> [[87, 119], [65, 65], [97, 97]]